Before Happiness, There is Adversity

I have seen no green in my yard since the snows started in the third week of December. As the ENORMOUS piles are now melting away, spring is popping up all over. This little montage captures some of what is emerging in my yard — notice how in two of the shots you can see the retreating edge of the snow pile just inches behind the crocuses.

I am, as usual, in awe of how much has been going on BELOW the snow. Life just can’t be suppressed. On one side of my house the snow piles were over three feet high, and certainly very heavy. Yet the daffodils emerging from the snow bank are over six inches high already. Daffodils are so determined.

I actually feel badly for those who live in climates without a Spring season. Spring is nature’s time to remind us that just because something LOOKS dead and frozen does not mean that it is over. Trees bud. Grass renews.

And spring bulbs are absolutely my favorite plant. You see, they CANNOT flower without first experiencing the cold of winter. It is the adversity that allows them to become who they are. And so we cannot experience a glorious Spring without first passing through the brutal winter.

Human Beings are the same, you know.

Happiness does not, and cannot, exist in a space by itself. Happiness cannot exist without Sadness. Contentment has no value if there is not first Disappointment or Anxiety. Hope takes its sweetness from the experience of Despair and Resignation. If not for the dark times in our lives, we could not appreciate the good times as deeply as we do.

And that is also HOW we human beings are able to endure even the darkest times, like illness, job loss, accident, & death of a loved one — because we believe that someday we will once again be able to experience the positive side of life that comes after the “snow” retreats from our life or the “rains” stop falling.

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Today, it is sunny outside, and I will enjoy it. AND soon the rains will start. And I will endure the grey because I know it will wash away all the dirt and grime of winter and Spring will emerge in a rainbow of colors and a hundred shades of GREEN.